2016

The Google Award for Women in Digital

Winner

Anna Alex and Julia Bösch - OUTFITTERY

OUTFITTERY was founded with the mission to make shopping more enjoyable for men, and has fast grown into a market leader. The curated shopping service is now a widely recognised brand, collecting national accolades in Germany and growing by more than 100% year on year.

Anna and Julia’s dedication to fine-tuning the service and investing in innovation have made OUTFITTERY the next step in the evolution of retail. The August 2015 launch of the ‘WhatsApp Style Chat’ saw them become the first European eCommerce company to offer customer consultation via messenger service.

A focus on fast, friendly and effective communication and outstanding customer service has seen OUTFITTERY grow to 300 employees and serve more than 300,000 customers. The company has recently expanded its German offices with the aim that, one day, every European man will benefit from its personal shopping and style service.

Runners up

Alex Depledge and Jules Coleman - Hassle.com

The past 18 months have been a busy mixture of fundraising and M&A deals for Alex and Jules. They took the lead negotiating deal structures and navigating choppy waters. Their combined efforts led to a significant jump in the valuation of Hassle.com, strong revenue growth in new and home markets and exiting the company in July 2015.

A highlight of the duo’s work internally was the building of a data analytics team in house. Through hard work, focus and a proprietary attribution model, they were able to build models that predicted to within 1% accuracy. Jules and Alex also focused on coaching and development to achieve a gender balance on the executive team by March 2015, and a 50/50 split at all levels by July 2015. Alex is an active and vocal member of the tech community, chair of Coadec and one of the founding board members of Sharing Economy UK (SEUK).

Debbie Wosskow - Love Home Swap

As founder and CEO of Love Home Swap, Debbie has forged a flagship company for the UK sharing economy and the luxury lifestyle industry.

Debbie’s strategic long-term vision, leadership skills and business acumen were central to Wyndham’s £7.5m investment. She has consistently scaled up the company internationally, resulting in year on year user and portfolio growth. Core to this success is a commitment to delivering a safe, secure and respected online community and portal that builds trust in consumers using its sharing services. The company now has over 100,000 properties listed in 190 countries worldwide, making it twice the size of its main US rival.

Debbie is a champion of the UK tech industry, angel investor in female led businesses, author of an independent government report and founding Chairman of Sharing Economy UK (SEUK).